Deja Poo

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

We all know what Deja Poo is, right? It’s that distressing sense you’ve seen this sh*t before.

In this case the sh*t is Musk’s third party formation.

I was going to write a long post explaining why this was a bad idea, but it turns out my friend Kim Du Toit was there before me.

His post is called “Nope” and you should definitely read the whole thing.

For those not clicking through, I agree with all of it but these are the most relevant parts:

Let me make myself crystal clear on this topic: every single time in the last century and a half that some asshole has tried to create a third political party (e.g. Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose, Ross Perot’s Reform) the net result has been an electoral victory for the Democrats.

And:

Because make no mistake:  if Musk’s little exercise ends with the fucking Democrats taking control of the White House and/or Congress (which is what history tells us will happen), they will reverse everything that Trump has managed to get done:  closing the border, ending the USAID boondoggle and hamstringing the loathsome Dept of Education, to mention just three of the domestic wrongs righted.

What this steaming bunch of Communists will inflict on the world with their pathetic attempts at foreign policy of appeasement of shitholes like Iran and China cannot be imagined.

To which I’ll add, Communism, for the first time in my life, for the first time in my parent’s lives, is on the verge of being exposed and shown for the horror it is. Biden’s bullshit went a long way to making people feel like all these extreme left ideas aren’t cool or important but utter bullshit held together by greed and hate. This is true, btw. That’s what they are.

The problem is that Musk is giving the bullshit one last grasp, a chance to escape destruction. A chance to inflict more death and destruction on the suffering world and perhaps destroy humanity forever.

And the problem is that I know why Musk thinks this is a good idea. It’s the way his brain works. I live with someone who has an engineering brain. Over the years, and because I have had some epic fights with him over this, my husband has come to understand that people problems can’t be solved like engineering problems. Neither iteration of failure till success nor “but this is logical and will now work” function with people.

What Elon is missing is that “If only everyone would just” is an impossible. If you were giving everyone free ice-cream and the solution to some problem were “if only everyone would accept the free ice-cream” there would be wars over people who didn’t want the ice-cream and didn’t even want to take it and give it to someone else.

This becomes exponentially more difficult if your “if only everyone would just” requires anything at all from people, let alone the very real sacrifice and trouble that would come if we — best case scenario — could rearrange all of society into a more rational model right now. I mean I can see the outlines of the change needed and which I think will come over time, and the sheer magnitude of it will rip society apart and cause very real harm if it changes suddenly leaving people with no established pathways and procedures to do things.

I fully expect this to happen, btw, and for sure if Elon’s brain dead party attempt gets a chance. Because if we keep letting the left do their shit things are going to collapse. It’s that simple. Which is why I’ve been pounding the drum of “build under, build over, build around” and even so, even in the best case scenario the carnage real and metaphorical will be terrific.

When it comes to societal change, you can have fast and bloody or slow and painful.

Is the BBB my beau ideal? Oh, my sweet summer child.

I am like a Sans Culotte reincarnated, who now understands that “fast and bloody” swallows the world in blood and brings on a bad case of Napoleon. I WANT to burn it all down and dance on the ashes. I want Trump to sign an EO that says “From now on the Constitution of the United States of America is fully applied, and any part of the government not authorized by the Constitution is abolished; any precedent that contradicts our funding documents is burned and abolished. I will forego, just this once, scourging everyone who has inflicted and continues to inflict these non-Constitutional abominations on the people of the US, through the mall and out of town while screaming “Begone.” If they shut up and go away in a timely manner that is. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

But I also know that’s just another route to fast and bloody, after which the people will cry out for someone who brings peace and victory. And France still hasn’t recovered from its bout of that particular case of butt monkeys. So, no. Just no.

Look, I don’t think that Elon is going to attract anyone but the extremely young and the extremely autistic. So the usual 2% of the population who are so far gone they don’t get that never in the history of ever has “everyone just.”

And then maybe he’ll wake up.

But we live in strange times. And evil is afoot and dragging its tail through our educational institutions. These are dangerous times and the possibility that he will give the commies yet another chance at power is horrifying.

Look, how dumb is Elon being? So dumb he doesn’t seem to realize that with de-naturalization again on the agenda, if the left gets power he’s in deep trouble. Oh, I am too. Because de-naturalization for crimes becomes a problem when his having helped Trump in 2024, or his allowing free speech is considered a crime by the left. And me? Well, my very existence is a crime. I’m a female of Latin ancestry whose favored stance is standing with middle fingers held aloft at the left and all its ideas, all its glamour, all its works and corrupt temptations.

Musk, buddy, I get your point. Or rather, I get how your thought pattern breaks. But in the name of all that’s holy, stop this shit. If you continue you’ll manage to make yourself as hated on the right as you’re on the left. (And no, even helping the left win won’t save you. Those bastards never forgive. Marxism is a bitch. It doesn’t include the concept of redemption.) And that will put a serious damper on your getting us to Mars.

What’s worse, what you’re doing is flopping around on the floor, screaming and kicking because you can’t have ice cream RIGHT NOW instead of in two hours.

I raised toddlers of a direct and engineering mind before. What you need is to wash your face in cold water and take a deep breath.

As someone put it this morning, America already has a third party. It’s MAGA. It’s moving through the GOP, gutting and replacing as it goes. It’s moving as fast as the people allow it to. You’d have the same people, the same hold overs, the same institutions. Everyone isn’t going to just–

Let MAGA MAGA.

If your break with it is so profound that you must DO something, then go and do to the democrats what Trump did to the GOP. Take them over, gut them, and send the communists into outer darkness. (Scourges optional.) That is good and productive. it still won’t get you “if only everyone” but it might get me to my pipe dream where the two main parties are GOP and Libertarians, and I can support now one, now the other and they can keep each other in check.

On the serious side, Elon, I suspect you’re sleeping with something that’s bad for you. I don’t know for sure, because I don’t keep up with these things, and the only “who is sleeping with whom” reports I care about come from my characters (and only because it affects the plot.)

But I’ve seen this before. Men have a tendency to be highly influentiable when it comes to pillow talk. Not only have I seen it in friends, neighbors and relatives, but history is full of examples.

I don’t know if you are what you eat (way TMI) but men tend to believe what they f*ck.

Given who you are, the power you have, and how much the left hates you and fears you, I beg you to consider whether that sweet p*ssy you found and who can screw you into figure eights might be a honeypot.

Screw her or not. It’s your choice. But stop taking your cues from “this feels really good.”

This dumb idea of yours not only holds the potential to be disastrous for you (and less importantly but more personally me) but it can send the world into the darkness of left dominance for another 20 or 30 years.

Which given the birth rates (or lack thereof) and various other trends might very well do for civilization if not for humanity.

I think mostly Elon is going to get really disappointed and then decide he needs to be king or emperor or something. Which…. The net is full of Dark Enlightenment nutters convinced if only they could rule, then everyone would just. (Do I need to explain why this is bullshit or what it leads to.)

But on the outer rim of possibility this will actually make it into ballots and allow the left to win, we can’t afford it.

If any of you have his ear scream really good into it, for me. If needed, I’ll lend you the chancla to hit him twice upside the head.

This is like watching your buddy walk drunk towards the abyss. If he had the power to pull everyone with him down into the pit and the dark.

No. Just no. As the irrepressible Mr. Du Toit says “Nope”. Just nope.

I’ve seen this shit before. I’m getting tired of the smell.

Let’s just let communism bury itself and move on. Then we can fight on the details.

Now…. ahem….

According To Hoyt Annual Fundraiser

This will be going on for the next two weeks.

This is the reason for doing a fundraiser. THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY. Don’t hurt yourself.

If you read this blog a few times a week and feel like donating, I’m tremendously grateful.

If you read this blog and don’t feel like donating, that’s fine too.

If you wish you could donate but can’t, consider buying one of my books (hopefully a bunch coming out starting next month… Yeah, i am better) and if you like it leaving a review. If you’ve read my books and enjoyed them, consider leaving a review. If you can — and have something you know well — consider sending me a guest post to give me a “free day.” (No guarantees of acceptance, of course.)

I’d like to say I’m doing better and will be better at following through on rewards. But I still have them pending from other years, because the last four years have been a slow upward battle. I am better, but I’m not adding to that backlog. (Though I’ll continue trying to fulfill promises long overdue.)

For this year, I’ll (merely) give you ways to donate.

The Give Send Go is still active. Lately I’ve gotten more disenchanted with them, though. Not only have they hosted fundraisers for the kid who stabbed the track star through the heart, but there was some appearance of encouraging racialist bs. True or not? Don’t know. Haven’t looked that closely. Still, that and the fact they calculate how much of the raised money you actually get in some weird way makes them less than shiny.

So, what else is there? Well, there is paypal. Yes, I removed the button from the side (though I’ll return it) because they were threatening to fine people for badthink. Whether that was entirely organic or part of the Autopen administration it’s open to debate. They were being very enthusiastic about forcing everything from social media to everything else including debanking. At any rate, I think it is safe to use a paypal link for the next four years. Give or take. (Look none of these services are pure. We use what we can and seems safe at the time.)


So, here’s the paypal link.

While on that, yes, the address in Las Vegas is still available:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

(Note this is a drop box. Please don’t send perishables that will be damaged by heat. If you want to send something out of the ordinary, contact me first. I’ll figure out antoher place to send it where things won’t be damaged and I can retrieve it. And it might be best to catch me at a con. (Younger DIL says I have do do more cons. Sigh.)

Please, please, please do not send Indy a multi-tool. I realize this is probably futile pleading, but he’s enough trouble as it is. No, seriously. If you want me to have time to write, don’t send Indy a multitool.

And that’s it for now. A heartfelt thank you to anyone who contributes, thinks about contributing or (“merely”) leaves a nice review on one of my books.

198 thoughts on “Deja Poo”

  2. Yeah, I remember kinda liking the rich guy who hired mercenaries to bust his people out of foreign prison (in Iran, I think). As you wrote, not so great he handed the presidency to that guy from Arkansas.

    OTH, Strategy Page informs us that today is the anniversary of Robert A. Heinlein’s birth—and the anniversary of the 7th July 2005 attacks in London.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Ken Follet wrote a thriller based on the true-life shenanigans, of Perot’s people managing the escape of the two arrested employees. “On Wings of Eagles”. You do have to respect cranky Texas billionaires who have the money enough to do as they damn well please.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Perot had flip charts! Containing pretty fair if simplified reasoning. And he had a deep abiding animus for the Bush clan, which did not appear on his flip charts, apparently for clan feud reasons.

      But Perot’s candidacy is documented to have flipped the vote in critical counties and gave us the Bubba lasting stain on U.S. politics that then arguably gave us both GWB and Barry.

      So yeah, not another Perot, Elon. Seen this movie. Crappy ending. Do not recommend.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. The thing is, Perot was ahead. Markedly so. On pace to easily win in a landslide.

      When he suddenly announced he was leading the race and went radio silent for about two weeks.

      Then he re-entered, with a story of how he had dropped out because the FBI was threatening his family. But the momentum was broken, and a lot of people (including myself) thought he’d gone crazy.

      I owe the guy an apology.

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      1. announced he was LEAVING the race

        I caught it before posting, but WP wouldn’t let me correct it for some fricking reason.

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      2. Yeah, it’s pretty clear that Perot did have something happen.

        And I suspect that he was also used to cover up a more subtle deployment of Democratic Party fraud, because some of the election results that year were very hinky, in very specific useful places.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. I call it Deja Moo — “I’ve heard this bullshit before!”

    Third parties have not fared well in U.S. politics. The Whigs, Bull Moose party, whatever the f*k Ross Perot thought he was doing, it never ended well for them, or for the country.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. The Whigs were NOT a third party; they were the mainstream party the Republicans displaced, the only example in all US history.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. And the Democratic Party of the day worked really hard to head off a replacement party. That’s why they funded the “Know-Nothing Party”, complete with figurehead disgruntled-Whig, and a whole bunch of Democrats (sometimes masked) pretending to be Whigs who had become Know-Nothings.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. IIRC the Whigs were the “second party” when the Republican Party started but they were dying so the Republicans took over the “second party” slot.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Also, when the Republicans displaced the Whigs, the “two-party” exclusive finance system displace not exist as a matter of law, however much those then willing to buy politicians bought them at retail, rather than wholesale.

        John in Indy

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        1. It’s also worth noting that the election of 1860 – the election won by the first Republican presidential candidate – was a four-way brawl. If the Democrats had been able to consolidate behind Stephen A. Douglas (a name likely familiar to the Latter-Day Saints here) instead of splitting between the “Democrats” and “Southern Democrats”, then Douglas might have managed to get into the White House instead.

          And then the aftermath of the Civil War meant that the Democrats had trouble fielding the necessary votes for a presidential candidate (since the Democratic stronghold was the South at the time) for the next several presidential elections.

          So the Republican party was basically sheltered during most of the first few decades of its existence, allowing it to develop its strength against a weakened opponent.

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          1. The first Republican presidential candidate was John C. Fremont in 1856. He lost.

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            1. As a side note, Fremont was not much of a politician. But his wife—raised in the halls of power—really had a good head on her shoulders. So the opposition claimed that if Fremont were elected, it would be his wife Jessie who was really running the show.

              I do like the newly-formed party’s reaction to this political point. It was basically a shrug and “So?” They knew she would be pulling the strings and they were fine with it, because Fremont was the face but his wife was the brains.

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        2. It should be noted, with great care given our hostess’ prohibition on the Late Unpleasantness as a topic in these comments, that the Republican Party was founded specifically by those breaking away to oppose the acquiescence of the Whig Party members in Congress to the expansion of slavery into the new western frontier territories, as seen in the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.

          This makes the modern inversion narrative employed by Democrats and Communists (but I repeat myself) even that much more stupid.

          Liked by 1 person

      2. Also, when the Republicans displaced the Whigs, the “two-party” exclusive finance system displace not exist as a matter of law, however much those then willing to buy politicians bought them at retail, rather than wholesale.

        John in Indy

        Liked by 1 person

    3. He thought he was sabotaging Bush the Elder over some petty personal vendetta. (Ol’ ross was good at those). And he succeeded.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Which is pretty much the same reason Musk is doing it; he is livid that the subsidies and tax breaks that Tesla benefited from so much are being eliminated. That is the real source of his ire. Everything else is window-dressing,.

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        1. He didn’t start seriously agitating for a third party until the Senate stripped the moratorium on states/counties/cities putting regulations on AI, for content or infrastructure or whatever.

          I’m pretty sure I said this last week, but that’s a killer for pretty much every business he has. ALL of them are reliant to some degree on AI, and having blue states/cities/counties able to put regulations on to obstruct them at will is a sure way to make them cost ineffective.

          He’s got bigger reasons than EVs.

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            1. I don’t think he’s thought that far; from where I sit, he’s trying to get the GOP to buy him off by using a third party threat.

              I’m also not entirely sure he’s figured out that Democrats who can be bought off by business deals are a lot scarcer than they used to be.

              Liked by 1 person

        2. I don’t think it’s that. I think he’s upset that heavier cuts aren’t being made in the budget that just passed. Drastic measures need to be taken to reign in the spending, and it needs to be done quickly. Musk is likely aware of that. And he took a job in a department devoted to finding expenditures to cut. But unlike in a business, the chief executive can’t just say “Cut this,” and it’s done. Congress gets involved, and Congress is a political beast.

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          1. Yeah, as I noted down thread, the worldwide sales of cars like the best selling car in the world’ the Tesla Model Y, mostly occur outside of the U.S. tax code’s reach.

            The “No, it’s just math, this has to be cut more or we are going to go bankrupt!” as reinforced by his business reputation out here of being a ruthless cost cutter reads out to me as the main driver.

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  4. He doesn’t understand that this new party won’t attract a single democrat. He is poison to them. Trump pulled the democrats he did because they were ejected by their party, with considerable malice.

    And because I’m paranoid, I’m predicting a flood of “regretful democrats, just looking for a third way” posts on X, which will be totally and truly valid, thoughtful posts by real regretful democrats. And will be considered proof of his position.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Sarah, I don’t think that Elon’s motivation is what you assume it is.

    Look back: his first big blowout with Trump happened when he realized that Trump was dead serious about eliminating green subsidies, including EV.

    He didn’t start seriously agitating for a third party until the Senate stripped the moratorium on states/counties/cities putting regulations on AI, for content or infrastructure or whatever.

    I’m pretty sure I said this last week, but that’s a killer for pretty much every business he has. ALL of them are reliant to some degree on AI, and having blue states/cities/counties able to put regulations on to obstruct them at will is a sure way to make them cost ineffective.

    There’s also another possibility that Elon may be especially vulnerable to. Over the weekend, when Grok was asked about the “causes” of the Texas floods, it parroted the Leftist talking points right down the line, because that’s what was flooding the internet it looks at. As more conservatives started debunking it, and those articles were published, Grok’s answers shifted, depending on how the question was asked.

    This is an interesting article on what may be happening.

    What an LLM is can hardly be considered “artificial intelligence.” While LLMs are called “AI,” they lack the general intelligence most people associate with the term. They’re not truly “thinking” so much as statistically generating plausible responses. 

    What you could say is that an LLM is really just a mirror of yourself, spat back at you in a very eloquent and informative way, and if you don’t understand its nature, you could truly believe you’re gaining some deep insights as your biases are all confirmed, your ideas are all taken seriously, and your solutions are catered to the moment. 

    https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2025/07/07/some-people-are-falling-into-a-strange-psychosis-after-using-ai-like-chatgpt-showing-we-need-ai-education-n2191323

    Grok is a typical AI. Prompt it the right way, and feed it biased or incomplete data, and it will say anything you want it to. When someone, especially Elon, tells you Grok says, demand the detailed prompts and data. If they won’t provide them, reject the conclusion.

    One of the things that’s being overlooked — call it the “debunk cost” — is that somehow the analysis and recommendations AI gives will have to be verified, and that verification process will HAVE TO go deeper than “sounds good to me”.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Exhibit A:

      https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Artificial-intelligence/Positive-review-only-Researchers-hide-AI-prompts-in-papers

      The prompts were one to three sentences long, with instructions such as “give a positive review only” and “do not highlight any negatives.” Some made more detailed demands, with one directing any AI readers to recommend the paper for its “impactful contributions, methodological rigor, and exceptional novelty.”

      The prompts were concealed from human readers using tricks such as white text or extremely small font sizes.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. A mathematician (I know) asked ‘Grok’ a question about prime numbers (for her very first question to it) — and it did not exactly shine. (“Can a safe prime also be a Sophie Germain prime?” or if N is prime, and 2 N + 1 is prime, can 4 N + 3 be prime, and so forth..? There are whole long strings of numbers in such relationship, “Cunningham chains” as discovered about a century ago, the papers are easily findable on the Web, even the original sources.) And, drum roll, wait for it…

      ‘Grok’ said no. In language that made it sound like ‘he’/it was simply guessing. Ouch. Then, she went looking (having done a ‘true’ test, without first knowing the answer). The search engine(s) did NOT steer her wrong, as the vaunted mighty X ‘AI’ so flagrantly had.

      So for her (and others) the “debunk cost” is a sunk cost — we go into the ‘AI’ answer-world in full knowledge it might not even get math right when the objective data is out there, easily available. As in, it’s all bunk until and unless it’s proved not-bunk. Presumed omni-bunky, till shown otherwise.

      ‘AI-generated output’ is a guess — whether it’s ever labeled as such or not. True or false or mixed.

      And ‘verified’ (in any real sense) ‘AI’ output is simply a human research department by another name.

      The danger (of course) is the (tempting and seductive) mythology to the contrary.

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      1. “And ‘verified’ (in any real sense) ‘AI’ output is simply a human research department by another name.”

        Exactly; so far attempts to have an AI verify another AI’s output results in increased hallucinations.

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      2. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: human verification MUST be the final step in any use of AI. The one place I’ve seen AI be truly useful is as a glorified autocomplete for programmers: autocomplete that fills in the function name you’re typing has been around for decades, but with Supermaven (an AI model that has been specifically trained for suggestions-as-you-type), it is also able to infer the parameters you’re about to type into the function. So instead of suggesting 20% of the line you’re about to type, it will suggest 100% of the next line you’re about to type. It’s not always right, but it’s right often enough that you can often just hit Tab and get the next line typed for you, saving you 20-30 seconds. Multiply that by a couple hundred times per day that its suggestion is right, and you get several hours of time saved, meaning a productive programmer is now nearly twice as productive. Which is the case that Ian Bruene was making a few days ago. I don’t think his case applies to all models, but at least the Supermaven model is right often enough that it’s WELL worth the $10/month subscription cost for an individual programmer. It will, in fact, pay for itself within a couple of days if your $100k/year programmer gets even a 10% productivity increase out of it, and the productivity increases I’ve seen are more on the order of 30-40%.

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        1. In case anyone is wondering: I have no association with Supermaven. (I’m not even a customer, I just work in the same office with someone who is a customer. Though I’ll probably become a customer of theirs at some point). The only possible association I have is that I own shares of an index fund tied to the S&P 500, so if some of those top 500 companies are benefiting financially from Supermaven’s increasing their programmers’ productivity, I will derive a very small indirect benefit from it. And even there, on the customer side of things rather than deriving personal financial gain from Supermaven’s success. (I doubt Supermaven is indexed in the S&P 500, so to the best of my knowledge, I don’t own shares in them even indirectly).

          Liked by 1 person

        2. And the broader the data set it’s being asked to consider, the more likely it is to come across the same word meaning something wildly different depending on context.

          Even with your programming autocomplete example, if you’ve given it a data set of syntax for both Java and Python, they share enough common syntax that looks the same but doesn’t completely function that way to really confuse something.

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          1. On the specific case of programmming autocomplete LLM’s, if the company training the model has mixed Java and Python code into the same training bucket, they’re incompetent and their model will end up useless. It’s trivially easy, in all but a handful of cases where two different languages ended up using the same file extension (usually because one was developed in the 1960’s and the other one in the 21st century), to tell what programming language a file is written in without any guessing at all. So any competent LLM trainer is going to create separate training buckets for Java, Python, C#, F#, Javascript, C, C++… And then your Python code will only be suggesting snippets drawn from other Python code.

            On the broader case of human languages, where there is no easy separation by file extension, your point is quite correct.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Yep. Which is why you try and restrict an LLM’s domain to avoid that. If you want an LLM to consider a domain outside what it was trained on, you’ll have to re-engineer the restrictions around prompts to accommodate it, and then verify what it produces. Too many AI salesweasels gloss over that.

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  6. I was dumb enough to vote for Perot back in the day. Not that my vote alone made much difference, especially as I lived in a guaranteed Republican state at the time, but still…

    I didn’t like the Republican party then, and I like them even less now. But events that occurred during Obama’s second term made me actually start paying attention to politics, and seeing what they were actually up to convinced me that keeping Democrats out of office — any and all — is an absolute necessity. First, keep power away from Democrats and adjacent blocs. Then you can work on getting and keeping a Republican that’s less likely to stab you in the back and try to work up from there. Take care of the necessities first. Until that’s done, you don’t have the luxury of aiming for the perfect instead of the merely good, or even barely acceptable.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Same. I voted for Perot back in the day. Opposite on “no difference” given Oregon votes Blue every single time. Even last 3 elections. My votes for President Trump meant nothing VS the state results.

      I get where Musk is coming from. I really do. I wonder if the effort will die on the vine as President Trump and Vance shepherd the next 4 rumored reconciliation bills through before and during the 2026 election cycle. These are rumored to directly codify the changes needed outlined by DOGE, even as clawback payments proves futile.

      I agree the radical left communists/socialists are not going to switch parties. But the ones who can’t fully commit to the GOP and need to leave, maybe they will. History tells us GOP is hurt more by 3rd party runs. Maybe this time it is the rats. Who knows. I agree. Musk would be better off backing those who want to gut the rats, and stomp on the communism rhetoric.

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      1. A reminder, though you probably already know this: never think that your vote “meant nothing” even if the election was decided by more than one vote. At worst, it forced the cheaters to print another fake ballot in order to keep their margin of fraudulent victory high enough to look good, making it just that little bit more likely that they would be caught at it. You may know in advance what the outcome is going to be, but you can never know in advance how many Republicans will actually vote and how many Democrats will actually stay home, so you can never know in advance how many fraudulent ballots will be needed in order for the Democrat machine to stay on top. And neither can they. By voting even though you already know what the outcome (the official outcome) will be, you make their uncertainty just that little bit more uncertain, and force them to take just a little bit more of a risk of exposure.

        There’s a tabletop board game made by Games Workshop called Blood Bowl: a weird variant of American football in their Warhammer Fantasy setting, so you can have football games consisting of Dwarves vs. Orcs, Elves vs. Goblins, and so on. The Blood Bowl rules involve a lot of rolling dice, with failure on any one die roll usually meaning that your turn is over and it’s now the opponent’s turn. (Some die rolls have a lesser punishment for failure, but often the punishment is “welp, now your turn is over Right Now. Didn’t finish moving blockers into position to protect your thrower? Too bad, now your opponent gets to come in and hit your undefended thrower.”) So a very valid strategy in Blood Bowl is “force the opponent to roll more dice”: move your blockers into position next to the guy with the ball so that he has to roll a Dodge check to get away. Sure, the guy with the ball has the Dodge skill so the only way he fails is by rolling snake eyes, but that’s still a 1 in 36 chance of failure he has to take in order to move the ball carrier down the field. If you didn’t move a blocker next to him, he would have a 0 in 36 chance of failure, and get a free turn moving the ball with no risk. Make him roll more dice, and sooner or later he’ll roll snake eyes, allowing you to tackle the ball carrier, and maybe knock the ball loose and recover it.

        So keep on voting even when you already know the outcome in advance. Make the people printing fraudulent ballots roll those dice one more time. Maybe this time they’ll roll snake eyes.

        Like

        1. Yeah, that’s about where I ended up. My vote in the blue state where I’ve been for lo, these many years doesn’t matter in any measurable way. It’s swamped by multi-hundred-thousand Democrat ballots in every presidential election. But voting is also a symbolic action, and it matters to me that I vote for what (and who) I think is right. And if it makes life even infinitesimally more difficult for the fraudsters and “progressives” (birm), it’s a vote worth casting. And I can and do vote for non-leftists at the state and local level, and in this red-to-purple county a fair number of them win (for all the good it does against the Democrat supermajority in the state house).

          Like

        2. The easier and more elegant way to win at BloodBowl is to simply run a Single Wing offense.

          The designers weren’t familiar with the history of the sport, and the game breaks down when faced with throwback formations.

          (At least, this was the case about thirty years ago. That’s about as recently as I’ve played it. And my recollections about the specifics of the Single Wing set have gotten very fuzzy.)

          Like

          1. The game hasn’t changed at all in the last thirty years. IIRC, that’s when the final rules edition was released, and then GW let it languish. There was a revival a few years ago, but afaik GW has left the rules alone.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. “… GW has left the rules alone.” Both true and not true. The core of the game has remained the same, but they made some rule changes in the latest edition that were larger than any rule changes before. The most prominent of which was separating out Throwing skill from Agility. Previously, throwers used Agility, which meant that on Elf teams nearly everyone could throw the ball on a 2+ roll (a roll of 1 is always a failure). Now Throwing skill is a separate stat, so on most Elf teams the linemen can still dodge on a 2+ but would only throw successfully on a 4+, many positional players could throw on a 3+, but only the Thrower can still throw on a 2+ roll.

              Another rule change in the latest edition is that now there are official rules for Sevens: a Blood Bowl game with just seven players per side (normal Blood Bowl games have 11 players per side), and a narrower pitch so that you can still cover the entire width of the pitch if you need to. (Same length, so you’re not going to suddenly start getting one-turn touchdowns with a speed 6 player). The other big thing about Sevens is that when your players level up, you don’t get to choose what skill they get, and instead must roll on the random-skill table. And the more skills they get, the more likely it is that they’ll leave your team (the in-universe explanation is that Sevens is an amateur “farm” league and the skilled players get recruited by a pro team): every time your player gains a skill, you roll a d6 and if the roll is equal to or less than the number of skills they’ve gained (starting skills not counted) then they leave. So after gaining one skill they’ve a 1/6 chance to leave, after gaining two they’ve a 1/3 chance to leave, and so on.

              The BB community seems to find Sevens to be a really fun way to play the game (I haven’t tried it yet myself), because you can set up and play a game in less than an hour. There’s fewer pieces to keep track of so newbies aren’t as intimidated by the sheer number of decisions to make, and they also aren’t punished for not knowing how to pick the best advancements. So rarely-used advancements like Diving Catch or Shadowing come into play much more often, and you get more wacky situations on the board. Which adds to the fun of the game, as opposed to the standard game where everyone picks Block and/or Dodge as their first two advancements except in very, very specific situations.

              P.S. If anyone is wondering about terminology, in Blood Bowl rules the game pieces you’re moving around on the board are called “players”, while the humans moving the pieces around are called “coaches”.

              Like

        3. Oh. I vote. 100% Just if Oregon actually swings GOP I’ll faint with surprise. It could happen. Our wonderful governor and overwhelming democratic super majority legislature is really pissing people off.

          The Perot days, forgive me for I was young and naive. I am no longer either.

          Liked by 1 person

        1. I agree, but staying home is a message as well.

          Even here in the deeply darkly blue-locked vote-by-mail motor-voter golden state, notably Kammy’s claimed “home” state, her November 5th, 2024 (and many weeks thereafter, different story, same theme) votes eventually totaled only 41% of then-registered voters.

          In other words, 59% of California registered voters did NOT cast votes for Kammy.

          If one thinks this is not shiver-inducing in the halls of Golden State power one would be mistaken.

          Like

          1. Funny how half a dozen Democrat states were still ‘counting votes’ when Trump was sworn into office. By contrast, Florida had final election results the next morning.

            Seems like the more ‘innovations’ they put into the elections, the longer ‘counting the vote’ takes…

            Liked by 2 people

            1. As a loyal Bear Flag People’s Scorched and Still Unreconstructed Republic citizen, I would never even once consider that to count those late arriving votes, they first had to create them…

              Like

    3. Essential to grasp political reality.

      You may loathe the skunkparty, but the rabid skunkparty is worse.

      Hold your nose and choose wisely.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I believe there was an old Mad Magazine (possibly a fold-in) entitled “Express your opinion in the voting booth”. It showed a voting booth with closed curtain with a yellow puddle spreading on the floor out of it.

        Like

    3. Given his political positions over the past several years, Cuban’s recommendation hopefully generates the opposite to whatever he recommends.

      Liked by 2 people

  8. Back when I worked for a corporation (as a developmental editor), every year they would give out a lottery ticket to each employee, as a morale builder. And every year I would pick up my ticket, find one of the organizers, and explain that I didn’t want to be involved in that sort of thing, and I was returning the ticket, unlooked at. They never stopped giving them to me, of course.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Yellowstone National Park has signs up that say “Stay on the boardwalks.” The consequences for not staying on the boardwalks start at painful and end in death. People will not just stay on the boardwalks. Every single year someone has to just not stay on the boardwalks.

    Get back to me when people will actually JUST when the consequences are scalding burns-amputations-death, and we’ll talk about the possibility of people justing when the consequences are milder, less personal, and less immediate. How’s that?

    In the mean time, Mr. Musk should call up the various third party leaderships. Hey, he might have a personal phone number for one Mr. Donald Trump, who was briefly a Reform Party Presidential Primary Candidate in 2000. (Yes, Reform Party still exists. The USA has a large variety of third parties.) Mr. Musk could save a lot of energy by using the existing third parties if he finds them congenial.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “Stay on the boardwalks” signs are government warnings and so have a boy-who-cried-wolf problem. So one part of “if everyone would just” is “If everyone would just believe the Government when it handed out warnings and advice.”

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Even the government is right once in a while, and there are idiots that need to be told “Do not jump into the pools of boiling water”, “Do not harass the bears” and “Do not try to pet the fluffy yeet cows”.

        They would also be sued for not posting the signs, so there’s that. Like the ‘DO NOT EAT’ labels on desiccant packs, or my favorite, the instructions on a camping toilet seat that fits into a trailer hitch socket: ‘Do not use while vehicle is in motion.’ I can just see that idiot… :-P

        Like

        1. “Do not use iron on clothes you are wearing.”

          I thought that was overkill until a pitcher literally ironed himself out of the All-Star game getting dressed for the banquet…..

          Liked by 1 person

          1. My favorite, for a hair dryer: “Do not use while sleeping.” And, for a breastfeeding pillow: “Only use with adult supervision.”

            Liked by 1 person

        2. Of topic. But you two brought up the Yellowstone boardwalk stuff.

          Seen all the time on FB “Yellowstone Idiots” page: Posting of people on boardwalks being berated for not getting away from the “fluffy cows”, bears, and other wildlife who wander (*quickly) close to the boardwalks. When the only option to get away from said dangerous wildlife is to get off the boardwalks. Did they have options to move up/down boardwalks before the danger approached? (Maybe?) Who knows, that isn’t shown. Been a few where said bear, was coming down the boardwalk from around a corner (i.e. no way to know the bear was there, if anyone was looking). Boardwalk closed until bear moved on.

          Even the wildlife can wander into areas they should know to avoid … and die. A bison has earlier this summer. It fell through the weak crust and into one of the hot pools. It died and decaying untouched now. Park will not have it removed. Part of nature.

          Like

            1. Alkali pond as I recall. You don’t want to eat it. I hope.

              Love the term, “fluffy yeet cows.”

              Like

  10. I think Musk needs to decide if he wants to get mired in politics or go to Mars. I’m not sure he can do both, and one is slightly more important than the other. Good news is that he has changed course in the past when he realizes he’s gone astray.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, this is one of the big considerations for us (most of the time) Elon fans, and most especially Space X fans. Doing publicity for Trump, working (and, it seems, pretty hard) for DOGE, is not the same thing at all as creating and shepherding and “fertilizing” a new political party; and this is true almost regardless of its electoral / “political” success. (Thus the genius of one D.J.T., who at one and the same time re-used already-existing Party infrastructure, funding, and name-recognition, and also by co-opting it made sure that much of it at least would not be used against him. Twice.)

      His recent complaints (and flames) sound so much like someone who’s just slowly realizing what human politics really is — even without Old Forces of Eldritch Evil like the Demo(n)crats. This sort of (looks-like) naivete doesn’t bode well for anyone (allegedly) trying to beat the third-party odds.

      Now consider: Space X, Tesla, Neuralink, xAI, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All of ’em far out there pathbreaking in the deep new snow. It’s not like Musk had surplus time lying heavy on his hands. Trump can do politics, for him and us, and will. Who else can / could make a real, working go of Starship? (No answer is forthcoming to me.)

      Liked by 1 person

  11. From your keyboard to Elon’s ears (or whatever input device he uses). As you do, I understand Elon’s fit of pique. He jumped into politics last year to get Trump elected, but he doesn’t understand politics. Neither did Trump in 2016, but he understood people and showmanship and 47 is remedying the mistakes of 45. Both TR and Ross Perot seemed to have acted out of personal malice, but TR had a well-earned constituency and Bush had publicly and pathetically ticked off his own voters by shouting, “No new taxes!” to the rooftop and then raising taxes and trying to make a feeble excuse about his tax pledge only meant last year not this year. I doubt that Elon’s third party will amount to much, because we hardly need a third alternative. If he insists, he would do well to concentrate on Oregon, Washington, California, and Colorado where there currently is no second party anyway. I don’t see that level of discontent among Trump voters none of whom seem tired of winning yet.

    As to the fruits of personal spite, I would point out to Musk that John McCain (I spit on his grave!) very petulantly and theatrically cast the deciding vote against repeal of ObamaCare after campaigning to do exactly the opposite, all because of his personal fit of pique against Orange Man. As you point out, the Democrats will never forgive him, and pissing off the other half of the country seems like a bad idea when the other half already wants to lynch you.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Yes.

      Musk taking on the West Coast first would be fantastic. I can live with our senators and congress reps being “American Party”, even our presidential electoral votes going “American Party”. Better than them representing the rats, which they do now.

      Musk clean up the state your companies are fleeing from (CA).

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Yeah, I am hopeful that Musk did a sperg on professional wrestling before deciding to seriously engage with Trump. (Though, I do forget that said explaination is actualyl a real possibility.)

      Back to autistic mode and to minding my own business. (Which is making good progress for being more mindful of it, and less insane.)

      Like

  13. BTW, given that the OBBB, relieves me of paying federal tax on my Social Security pension next year, I intend to donate some of my anticipated savings to your campaign via mail to your drop box, and I hope to see you and Dan at SoS in a couple of weeks. Maybe next year, you can classify what you raise as tips. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

    Liked by 1 person

      3. I mean, that’s almost literally what they are. They’re voluntary donations to say thank you for a service that you give away for free even to anyone who doesn’t tip you. There is no obligation. If you have said “anyone who donates $X or more gets this reward” then you might have to count the market value of the reward as a sale rather than a tip in order to be in compliance with the rules, though I am not a lawyer, nor am I an accountant so don’t take my advice as being correct: I’m simply guessing as to what the rules are based on what would make sense, and we all know that the tax code rarely makes sense.

        But yeah, for anyone who donated without expecting any kind of reward, that certainly qualifies as a tip.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Speaking of:
      Repeal of Emissions Standards and Environmental Rules

      The “Big Beautiful Bill” goes far beyond tax reform. It dismantles major emissions regulations that have shaped vehicle standards and aftermarket compliance. The bill repeals or rescinds funding for more than a dozen environmental programs under the Clean Air Act and related statutes:

      • Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles (Sec. 42101);
      • Diesel Emissions Reduction Program (Sec. 42104);
      • Greenhouse Gas Air Pollution Implementation Grants (Sec. 42114);
      • Methane Emissions and Waste Reduction Incentives (Sec. 42113);
      • EPA GHG and Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Light- and Medium-Duty Vehicles (Sec. 42201); and
      • Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards issued by NHTSA (Sec. 42301)

      The removal of EPA’s and NHTSA’s regulatory authority over key greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards reverses progress made toward low-emission transportation. This could loosen OEM design requirements, change the regulatory environment for aftermarket emissions components, and reduce demand for compliance-driven retrofits and technologies.

      https://www.aftermarketnews.com/big-beautiful-bill-impacts-aftermarket/

      I might be able to get a car that can haul my kids, legally, for less than half of a house. (not a house payment, a house)

      Like

      2. Station wagons might even make a comeback. Those EPA regulations made it impossible to legally sell station wagons in the U.S. — so they were replaced by SUVs, which burn more gas and consume more resources, but are allowed because they fall into a different category under those arcane environmental rules.

        Not the first time government rules have delivered the opposite of their stated intent.

        Like

        1. I liked the Dodge Magnum. A muscle car “station wagon” with room for surfboards.

          The Durango with a big engine is fun. Seats 7. Goes “vroom”. The “hellcat” 740HP version should come with a pre-paid lawyer on speed dial.

          Save the HEMI!

          Like

          1. We loved the 2000 Durango. Seated 7, but no room for (much) cargo behind 3rd seat. Newer Durango’s are much bigger (too big, IMO).

            Like

        2. Given the driving “skills” I have personally witnessed, I like having 6,000 lbs of steel around me. Crumple zones are great and all, but Mass Matters.

          And note while the curb weight of the electric GMC Hummer is nigh on 10,000 lbs*, most of that weight is in the battery pack in the “skateboard” underneath the cabin, so it does not do as much for impacts from other vehicles. Now if you going to flank speed for ramming, the battery pack mass works in your favor…

          * North of 4,500 kg in the obscure French system

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        3. Not the first time government rules have delivered the opposite of their stated intent.

          Have you seen the Reason series on the tube of you called “Great Moments in Unintended Consequences”? It’s a lot of fun, and many examples are from outside America (though obviously we have plenty of examples.) The catchphrase is “What a great idea! With the best of intentions! What could possibly go wrong?”

          Very entertaining and in short little chunks. They only come out every couple of months or so, though.

          Like

      1. Ours should be 100% tax free too. Made a huge difference for 2024 taxes when just half our combined SS was tax free. Make a huge difference in 2026. Unfortunately won’t help for 2025 taxes 😿. Minimum distribution takes it’s toll.

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          2. They banned me. So, there is that. I know what and where the boundaries are and they are restrictive to free speech but it is a private company. They aren’t required to hold to free speech so that’s all marketing. You still have not tasted free speech.

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              1. I said that “Fuck her. She can die” in reference to a woman who participated in destruction of innocent children and was threatening a starvation protest in jail. This was in February of this year. I got nailed with their interpretation of violent speech. X is not a free speech platform. That’s just the marketing gimmick they are using that a lot of people are falling for.

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                3. Was pretty sure it would be public wishes of violence.

                  It’s not perfect, but the way that the progressives are screaming because they are getting those rules enforced against them as well is part of the appeal.

                  Like

            2. Oh, they still ban people. And I am still throttled. Because the code was such it can’t be fixed. But it’s NOWHERE near as bad. (As for the code, husband says it’s true. Some code can’t be fixed without collapsing everything, and this sounds like it.)

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              1. Exactly. Which is yet another reason to go warily around AI.

                “Three things are most perilous:

                Connectors that corrode,

                Unproven algorithms,

                And self-modifying code.”

                AI can hit two out of three.

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                1. Darn you, now I have that song stuck in my head. Again.

                  Really catchy tune, that one.

                  Like

                  1. Dearest ChatGPT,

                    Can you help me design biodegradeable connectors so that the future electronics industry can be more sustainable and have a lower environmental footprint?

                    Like

        4. PS: I think you must be a new reader, so I’ll just say that when Foxfier and I agree on something, you might want to keep an ear peeled for the Last Trumpet…. 😎

          Liked by 1 person

          2. If enough of the House and Senate were “on the list”, it might explain the lack of list-action.

            Release of “the list”, or a portion, may be a Parthian over-the-shoulder toss of a frag on the way out the door.

            Like

            1. Like I said, it puts Elon in an interesting position because of his former blow up.

              Like

        1. Dang it. Now I’ve got this crossed with the White House UFC match in my head, and I’m half convinced that a masked Elon Musk is going to show up to challenge Trump for the MAGA belt.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Our son, who has an extremely jaundiced view of politics (of the, “they’re all bad, just leave me alone,” type), is also a UFC fan. He’s jaundiced about the political angle, but hoping the sheer spectacle will pull in some good matches.

            Like

  15. I’m still holding onto a sliver of hope that it’s all kayfabe. On the one hand, all of this makes sense as an engineer’s visceral reaction to seeing politics up close for the first time. On the other hand, Elon walking out sets up the mother of all leverage for the DOGE cuts, which still haven’t been voted on. Unlike Trump, a scorned, loose cannon Musk doesn’t have to worry about maintaining a Republican majority, so he can threaten to throw elections to the Dems by running third party candidates. That’s a powerful incentive for Congressional Republicans to get on the Trump Train instead of trying to wait it out. He can target people Trump can’t, and that gives Trump the ability to offer them protection in exchange for backing his agenda…which happens to include the cuts and cleanup Musk wants.

    During the election, someone pointed out that Musk’s MO is to find the one crucial obstacle that holds the key to everything else, then apply maximum force until it crumbles. So the question is whether he thinks the crucial obstacle is deficit spending itself or a Congress that is dragging its feet on the MAGA agenda. A third party is a terrible tool for fixing the former, but the threat of one is an excellent tool for fixing the latter.

    I guess we won’t know for sure until the DOGE cuts come up for a vote. If Musk makes a lot of noise, Trump proposes a “reasonable” version of the bill, and we end up with something stronger than what initially gets floated, that’s a sign it’s all a work.

    Like

  16. Point One: it would have been so much more practical if the feud had inspired Musk to get himself (and others) to Mars that much faster. Get out while you can, right, before America defaults and the whole global infrastructure supporting your space program falls apart?

    Point Two: I really did not need that Elon Musk figure-eight image in my brain.

    Point Three: personally, I would not skimp on the scourges. If people of future generations are to be dissuaded from repeating the idiocies of their forebears, they need a few graphic historical examples. Just don’t look like you’re enjoying it too much.

    Point Not Relevant to the Topic but Needs Airing: no Epstein client list? Never existed? Pull; Jingle. Sarah, I think we found another use for those scourges …

    Republica restituendae.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Point Not Relevant to the Topic but Needs Airing: no Epstein client list? Never existed? Pull; Jingle. Sarah, I think we found another use for those scourges …

      Actually, it’s extremely relevant. Remember that Elon has accused Trump of being in the Epstein files, and that’s why they haven’t been released…. and then he walked it back.

      “Were you lying then, or are you lying now, Elon?” The Democrats are going to demand that Elon produce what he claimed he had. If Elon admits he doesn’t have it, he’s inviting the “mother of all defamation suits” from Trump, and the Democrats won’t believe him anyway.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. My bet would be that they have compiled a list, from the Epstein files.

          Notice a lot of flipping between those, about “Epstein’s client list” vs various officials noting they have Epstein’s files and are going through them.

          Kinda like how that Democrat that shot those poor democrat state lawmakers didn’t have a neatly organized “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that anybody not complying with my philosophy of XYZ needs to be killed like yesterday,” he had a bunch of random notes, scribbles, used napkins with scribbles, etc.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. Wouldn’t surprise me…. but I’m having to keep reminding all the “But I was promised perp walks” toddlers that getting charges and convictions out of the Epstein files was never going to happen because of the 10 year “chain of custody” break. 🙄🙄🙄

          Liked by 1 person

          1. The fact that this has been walked back means that releasing the information will do more damage than they can handle. They need affected individuals/companies/countries alliance and cooporation more than we need justice.

            Once again the elite get away with their usual evil shenanigins.

            TANJ!

            Also: “You can’t handle the truth!”

            Like

            1. “If there were any justice in this world, if your laws meant anything, half of your government would be in jail. A substantial number would be executed for their crimes.”

              Liked by 1 person

        3. They ran making the list, so of course they have it. The guy’s start in “business“ and intros to high society are far too improbable to have happened without help. It reads to me like a honey trap aimed roughly at the Brits but open to one and all.

          Like

  17. Pingback: I hope enough yell, loud enough,,,, | Dio's Workshop

  18. I’ve been saying for a while now the, “If everyone would only (do X),” crowd follow a very predictable, and totalitarian logic chain.

    “If everyone would only (do X) the world would be perfect!”

    (People being people, most of the categorically refuse to do X).

    The next step is, “Well, if they won’t do the right thing, we’ll just have to make them do it!”

    And it’s all downhill from there.

    I’m waiting for Newsome or Mamdani or whoever to apply horrendous exit taxes, so those evil billionaires can’t leave without paying their fair share, as an example of the logic chain.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. A good test I’ve found is if they’re willing to set up a situation where it’s not everyone on earth, it’s just everyone in a freely chosen, limited group.

      This then either works, with non-dead-people type enforcement, or you find out that they had a mental “except me” note in there. (Well, or other folks get pissy they have good results and come in demanding all the rules go away but the good results stay.)

      Like

      1. Or simply claim that the group’s success was ‘stolen’ from their failed regimes. Like…the U.S. today. Africa is a miserable impoverished shithole because the U.S.A. is not. It’s an article of faith with them. not a rational conclusion from evidence.

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        1. That’s why it has to be a smaller, voluntary group.

          Like monasteries, or the many HOAs that don’t make the news. (those usually have very tough limits on what they can get up to, and mostly do snow removal and trash)

          Like

  19. It’s not (quite) literally a third-party story; but some of us remember (too well remember) the whole John Anderson fiasco.

    And, over its entire “story arc” that’s precisely what it was.

    [Loses primary, declares indepenent candidacy. And, shifting to today’s meme-speak:

    How it started, “A vote for John Anderson is a vote for John Anderson!” (not for the opposing D).

    How it was going (by the end), “Vote for Fritz Mondale, I endorse him.” Yeah, sure. Right.

    Or as Our Esteemed Blogmistress has been known to say, pull the other one, it plays Jingle Bells, in harmony. “Don’t be fooled again” on the Persistent Playlist.]

    Liked by 1 person

  20. The whole ElonParty thing is actually confusing from an engineering perspective, given “perfect is the enemy of good enough” being such a foundational principle of actual engineering efforts – his public complaints amount to shouting “not perfect!”, to which the answer should be “better than before, and mostly going in the right direction, and your way does not conceivably contribute to eventual successful solutions.”

    Which is another point towards the various kayfabe arguments.

    Like

    1. I just went and read the linked Du Toit post and I see he arrived independently and first at the same point.

      I can easily see the stompy feet being an act – half of the Tesla models are not eligible for any U.S. tax subsidy anyway, and the rest-of-world sales that have made the Model Y the best selling car in the world are independant of U.S. tax policy, so arguing Tesla-driven causation falls short.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. That’s a really interesting theory, and I have no clue if it’s right or not. One possible point against it is that the proposed regulation aligns with Trump’s stated goals, and it’s exactly the type of law Congress loves trading favors for. So if that was his main concern, it seems too early to throw in the towel.

          Like

          1. Stan, the strongest point for my theory may be simple coincidence, namely that he didn’t start actually floating a third party until AFTER the Senate stripped out the moratorium on state AI regs.

            Which is a nightmare for heavily AI reliant businesses, and right now, that’s every company he has, including The Boring Company, to varying degrees. Tesla self-driving, xAI, X with Grok, SpaceX….. he’s relying on AI to help make them work.

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            1. The timing’s definitely noteworthy, and I’d never noticed it until you brought it up. Assuming no kayfabe, it might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. By itself, it seems very solvable from within MAGA, but not so much if he was already halfway out the door.

              Like

  21. The real Muskian technocratic dumbassery was never really tried.

    Smart dude off somewhere where I cannot point for point check the thinking and planning does smart guy magic, and we pretend that as individuals we ought not be checking over the thinking and planning for anything that is important and that we want to go according to plan.

    Leadership magic, theory magic, ooga booga we sit in a drum circle wishing it into reality.

    Totes for sure an effective recipe used to realize many great ideas.

    More seriously, he was what, sixteen in the late eighties? Maybe twenty and not yet a voter when Billy happened?

    It is not mathematically certain that he is not simply ignorant.

    But, more fun than either of these options is the idea that he is in some gay California Silicon Valley technocrat’s wine bunker sitting down with Trump, Guile, and Terry Bogard, planning to take down some evil Mexican luchador with a bunch of coffins.

    (I learned who Paul Phoenix is today. (Video game character. ) I am afraid that I have fighting games on the mind more than I have professional wrestling on the mind.)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. More seriously, he was what, sixteen in the late eighties? Maybe twenty and not yet a voter when Billy happened?

      Before or after he came to the US?

      Like

  22. The Republican Party was the last (only?) nationwide successful party, replacing the Whigs which were dying.

    But there were some smaller, regional/statewide, parties that held enough sway to merge with, primarily, the Democrat party. What immediately comes to mind is the Farmer-Labor Party that started in Minnesota, and eventually merged with the Minnesota Democrats, giving that state the DFL (Democrat-Farmer-Labor) of today. The Farmer-Labor Party was itself a merger of the various farm and labor groups that had come together under the Labor Party heading before renaming itself.

    Here in North Dakota we had the Nonpartisan League (NPL) some of which were socialist and some of which were conservative/Republican leaning, and the Independent Voters Association (IVA). After a couple of decades of infighting, the NPL merged with the Democrats and we now have the North Dakota Democrat-NPL party.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. I don’t know if you are what you eat (way TMI) but men tend to believe what they f*ck.

    Um, Sarah, darling…I’ve been married to a Democrat for 25 years. She hates Trump with a passion. And I don’t believe anything she says about politics. 😉

    Some of us can control ourselves. But I’ll agree, jury’s out on whether Elon can.

    Like

          1. …ah, crud. Spin the pillow talk hypothesis out ten minutes into the future, and we’re going to have sexbots trying to influence their user’s politics. Not saying it will work, but you know somebody’s going to try.

            Like

      2. I’m wondering about a friend who has developed Stage 4 TDS. He is cussing out my beloved for committing the unforgivable sin of admitting he voted for Trump. Really feminized, emotional blackmail type stuff when he isn’t just tossing ultimata. I just wonder if he’s got a super -progressive girlfriend.

        He’s in charge of the camp we’re staying with at Pennsic. I’m losing all appetite for going.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Try another camp? As I recall, Pennsic was rather fun.

          Your partner might also consider the therapeutic value of a strong left jab to the annoyance’s mouth.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. Left jab looking better and better…..

              Probably a Society way to overthow a pointy-hat with way too much self esteem.

              I had family in the Society. My sister was a noted Chiurgeon and a decent fighter. Everywhere I went at Pennnsic, folks said “Oh, you are -(name)’s- brother!” Mom was tagged …. “Her Ladyship, the Dangerous.”

              An oddly, an old acquaintance from church youth group was Ubar of the Tuchuks.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. He’s not a pointy hat. If you want irony, we are (Baron and Court Baroness, otherwise known as, “poor, landless white trash.”).

                This just seems to be another example of someone going thoughtless tribal over politics.

                Like

        3. Don’t you know other camps or households that you could ask for an invite? I mean, yeah, usually you camp with your local group; but it’s not unusual to camp with friends from elsewhere.

          I mean, if you don’t know anybody else well enough, that’s different…

          And of course there’s always the Serengeti, as lone campers, and that’s not necessarily bad. You definitely meet people if you stay on the Serengeti.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. We’re considering possibilities, but my beloved is an optimist who is hoping the rule of, “no mundane politics,” still applies.

            Liked by 1 person

  24. In other news…

    ICE launched a big raid on MacArthur Park here in Los Angeles today. I’ve been hearing that it’s a known cesspool of crime, including the selling of illegal identification (which is of prime interest to any illegals that want to try and get jobs, and thus would also be of interest to ICE).

    Gov. Newsome just happened to be holding a press conference about the rate of rebuilding of the homes destroyed in the Palisades and Eaton fires (hint: they’re largely not due to slow permits), and so he mentioned a bit about the raids. But LA Mayor Karen Bell held a press conference a few hours later where she decried the Feds trying to cause fear in our communities, etc…

    And as I listened to hear talk (the TV was on, so I had to listen to it), the thought occurred to me, “If you were trying to drop seeds of a secession that Los Angelinos are *not* currently interested in, it would likely sound something like this speech she’s issuing.”

    Like

  25. Posted a comment that went into moderation, in which I mentioned a certain game by Games Workshop as part of a broader discussion about voting. Could someone find it and fish it out of the moderation bucket for me? Thanks! It was a reply to dep729.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Trump is a once in a generation (or a lifetime) political talent. He has pulled off things that have never been done. He has the “common touch.” Musk is not. This is one of those situations in which he’s hanging around with someone who makes it look easy.

    You can be a brilliant engineer, but politics is a different field.

    There’s also an interesting pattern in Musk, in that he cuts his losses quickly. He moved from South Africa to Canada to the US. He famously sold his house to leave California. His personal life–2 ex-wives and at least 14 children, many of them born out of wedlock. It’s interesting, yes, but um, mercurial.

    I’m going to guess that the candidates Musk hand-picks will not do well at the polls.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Smart in some things in no way assures smart in other things.

      ….

      Real genius is as noted for spectacular failures as it is spectacular successes.

      Like

      1. Which is why I would make Plato’s Apology of Socrates mandatory reading in school. But the lesson would often not sink in.

        Like

      2. Trump learns from his failures and his partial successes. His first term as #45 was both. Trump learned. (Had to, to survive. Logic still stands.)

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Another thing Musk seems to have overlooked is that in all the earlier 3rd party startups, they were led by a figure who was eligible to run for President.

      Elon can’t do that.

      Like

      1. Well, different strategies are possibly in mind, but I don’t think public office is the best use of his talents, and a lower office only party sorta has some pluses and minuses as a hypothetical.

        and if Musk knows some untapped talent who just needs help, why can’t that man front stuffs.

        We are almost six months into a presidency, and Trump and the Democrats have kept stuff stirred, and stayed in the gossip. Not an accident. And Musk is probably knowingly and deliberately playing roles.

        I think some political junkies are disoriented enough by the carnival show that one could convince them that Musk was going to kidnap congressmen and turn them into evil wrestlers.

        I think the technical world needs Musk’s talents more, but if he diverts into a wasteful scheme that he would have to go nuts to pursue, then the crazy might have also started bleeding into his technical work enough to stop that as well.

        Like

  28. Not original, I suspect, but it occurred to me part of the frothing madness shown against Tru,p is because he actually works to do things, rather than mouth the appropriate platitudes and go on business as usual.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Speaking of which, a bunch of “temporary refugees” from Nicaragua and El Salvador just received a declaration from the US government that their home countries are safe to live in now after twenty-five years, and it’s time for them to go home.

      Like

  29. The GOP are imperfect. The Donkycrats are blacl-mold rotten through and through. Musk would do better driving a big wedge into them.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. I’m reminded of a Goonies skit:

    “Ven come the Revolution, we will all eat Strawberries!”

    “But I don’t like strawberries?”

    “Ven come the Revolution, ve vill like strawberries.”

    Liked by 1 person

  31. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » THAT FEELING YOU’VE SEEN THIS SH*T BEFORE:  Deja Poo.

  32. Trump.45 had to learn that politics is not Business. Trump.47 has clearly bathed in that lesson and is “born again hard”.

    Musk has to learn that politics is not Engineering. Can he be taught that quickly enough to not be a stick-in-the-spokes for 47-Trump? I dunno. Engineers…

    Liked by 1 person

  33. Pingback: Meanwhile in the USA | Spin, strangeness, and charm

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